Apple Music student discounts come to 82 new regions

Apple has increased the number of markets where students can grab a discount on their Apple Music subscription. As iMore's Rene Ritchie notes, the deal is being offered in 82 new regions — 79 now and a further three on February 26th — including Israel, Poland, Portugal and the Philippines. Pricing varies by country, but as a general rule students get half-off (in the US, for instance, it's $4.99 instead of $9.99 per month.) Apple uses UniDAYS to verify the listener has enrolled at a college or university, and will periodically check their status while the four-year discount applies.

Apple's student membership was available before in a bevy of countries including the US, the UK, Germany, Ireland and Denmark. At the end of the month, however, it will be accessible in "nearly all the countries where Apple Music is available," a spokesperson told us. That's important as the company goes head-to-head with Spotify, Tidal, Amazon, Google and others. Apple has 36 million subscribers, which is impressive (and growing fast in the US) but a long way off Spotify's market-leading 70 million. To close that gap, Apple needs to convert more trial users into paying customers. Student discounts, while not a new idea, are an effective way of grabbing new users and making them loyal subscribers after graduation.